Session 2 (July 31st, 2015)
Day 2 in New Sarnath (Morning)
Filling Out the Proper Paperwork
The next morning (morning being a bit of a misnomer as scholar's aren't much for rising with the sun) Thanus is presented with a letter of credit to cover the start up costs of the party's joint scavenging operation with the University of Mt. Doyle. With that done, Thanus bids farewell to Hadrian and the apparently-still-high-on-opiates scholar whose introduction he hasn't yet made.
Thanus heads to the main gate of the western barricade and is on time to witness the last few later rising scavenging crews heading off into the Doomed city beyond. As they go soldiers wearing the livery of New Sarnath wave them through without checking paperwork as these groups apparently come though this way enough to be known on sight.
After the last group heads out, Thanus approaches one of the guards and inquires where one could get a scavenging license and, surprisingly, is directed to the nearby office of a guard captain with no bribes necessary. Either Thanus has found the one non-corrupt guard in the city or perhaps the actual city guard is at least slightly less corrupt overall than their House Amathy counterparts.
In a nearby building Thanus approaches a young captain of the guard who is busy filling out paperwork and says he has come to give the man more paperwork to process as he needs to fill out the proper forms for a lower city scavenging license.
The young man behind the desk introduces himself as Captain Destius Caepio and says it would be his pleasure to assist any upstanding citizen of New Sarnath, especially a scholar, he adds as he looks over the letter of credit from the university.
Thanus hands the finished paperwork to the young Captain Capeio who then notes that he forgot to fill in the group's name; they don't need one of course, the captain says, but it is quite difficult to build a proper reputation without one.
And so Thanus is put on the spot. After some meta-gaming influence he decides on the first vaguely badass thing that comes to mind: "We're the Hellfire Syndicate," says the rather meek looking scholar, and the captain smirks slightly as he fills in the name. Capeio also can't help but ask if Thanus has gotten inked yet to make it official; isn't that what badass outlaw types do?
With that out of his system, the captain gets back to business and gives Thanus the party's shiny new license. Before Thanus goes he also explains some general laws that official scavengers must follow.
Upon returning to the city every scavenging crew must report their findings to a tax officer of New Sarnath who will appraise their loot and take the city's cut. Such officers have an office near every main gate of the barricade. Some are more reputable than others, adds the captain disdainfully, and he suggests the party return through the main western gate, his domain, as he knows under his watch laws are laws and not mere suggestions.
Thanus acknowledges the captain's words of wisdom and begins to leave when the young man gives him last piece of advice:
"As much as I would personally like to protect each and every upstanding citizen of our fair city, once you are outside of the barricade the city guard cannot help you. That is where our jurisdiction ends. If you venture forth, stay on your guard, citizen."
Conversations of Dubious Legality
Back at the Healthy Page Braggor and Vlad are doing some day drinking in the mostly empty bar and talking business. Vlad has considered his options and is wants to join in on Braggor's new scavenging endeavors.
Vlad has joined the party!
As they make small talk and continue drinking, Thanus finally arrives with the completed paperwork and it seems the party is ready to get down to business. Before that though, Braggor has some business of another kind in mind; he asks Thanus if he could possibly forge some documents. More specifically some real estate documents. Braggor would have asked Jake, but it seems his good for nothing squire has run off.
Anyway, Braggor continues, a suitable location for his forge has been located and the place is filled with squatters; if he came in with a deed and threw them out, who would be able to dispute him? It seemed like the whole neighborhood he was looking at was pretty much unclaimed after all.
Thanus isn't sure about the wisdom of such a plan, but he figures he could probably make such a forgery if he had a real one to work off of. Perhaps they should talk about this and any other illegal matters that may come up in a more private setting.
Braggor doesn't see the issue as Lucky (who had been pointedly not paying attention to the indiscreet conversation) surely knows it is best for business to not get involved in his customer's affairs. Thanus still seems skeptical.
"Don't worry man! I won't tell no one either!" shouts the only other man in the bar, a rather cheery sort of career alcoholic. The shout comes from across the room as he is sitting in the opposite corner of the room; perhaps the party was talking rather loudly.
"See? No one is going to say nothing," says Braggor, but he lets the old conversation die for the moment. Onto scavenging plans!
As they don't really have a plan beyond getting their asses outside the barricade to start looking around randomly, the planning session is rather short. They do decide that Braggor should stand in front so that Thanus can cower behind him if necessary. From across the room the alcoholic concurs.
Braggor asks the alcoholic if wants to join up too as they could always use another body up front, but the man says he's had enough of that sort of thing for a lifetime and wishes them luck. The party decides to head to the western gate and beyond. Into the ruins!
The First Foray into "Archaeology"
Thanus presents the proper paperwork to the same guard who had originally given him instructions to the captain, and the party is let through, again with no bribe necessary.
The areas directly beyond the barricade are fairly secure and it is there those too poor to live within the walls make their way with little oversight from the actual city beyond the occasional harassment from armed men; out here is it's own little society with its own rules.
The party sees small collections of shanties and roughly repaired buildings as well as the destitute, including some Northern refugees, about their daily toils, but the party doesn't care about that and quickly leaves those "neighborhoods" behind.
The further west they go the less signs of habitation they find, yet most buildings have signs that they have been looted. The party notices relatively freshly symbols carved over doorways and broken walls; marks from previous scavenging crews.
The Doom of Sarnath left many roads difficult, if not impassible, so the few that remained mostly intact have become the main thoroughfares through of the city regardless of how small or unimportant they were before the Doom. The party follows one of those thoroughfares.
As they go they keep their eyes open for buildings that have been overlooked by previous looters and finally they find one; a two story building with the downstairs completely blocked by rubble, but with a mostly intact second story with no obvious way up, at least from the inside.
They party figures it out and finds a room. It has clearly been touched by the elements due to most of the roof being missing, but it has not been touched by looters until now. Much in the room is destroyed and worthless, but the party finds a still secured chest with a potion and a small amount of gold inside. Success!
Thanus takes the potion to identify later and Braggor takes the chest in case they end up needing it. Back to the road and onward! Further on the party finds another rather easy to overlook spot and discovers the doorway to a small store, apparently also untouched since the Doom.
The buildings directly next to it are utterly destroyed and have collapsed onto the building, giving it the look of complete collapse itself. Instead the roof has somehow held and the store is now cocooned by rubble, yet the door is can clearly be seen from the road if looked at from the proper angle.
Making sure that the whole thing won't collapse on their heads as they enter, Vlad cautiously picks the lock and the party finds themselves in a general store. A single skeleton leans against a shelf, its leg clearly broken; perhaps the shopkeeper.
The party checks the store and finds most of the goods worthless, but they find some gold in the till as well as the shop key which Braggor takes along with the shopkeeper's skull. He seems to enjoy talking to it and using it as "the lookout."
Behind the counter the party finds a trapdoor leading to a small bedroom and they relieve the shopkeeper of a few more personal possessions that might still have value. Thanus finds the man's journal and skims it to see if there are any plot hooks in it, but finds none. He keeps it for later just in case.
With all the valuables safely looted, the party walks back up the stairs, but as they are about to reappear from behind the counter they hear something from outside the store:
"Hey, has there always been an open door right there?"
New Friends?
The party takes cover behind the counter, ready to fight if necessary. They hear a second voice say they have more important things to do right now, but the first voice insists they check it out as it will only take a minute. The party hears footsteps close by the door now.
Braggor, sensing that things might escalate rather quickly if the not necessarily hostile newcomers are surprised, yells out that the building is occupied. A new voice calls for "David," presumably the first voice, to back off, but instead he calls out that he's coming in with his hands up and he means no harm.
A lightly armed and armored human maybe in his 20s enters, smiling, with his hands up. From outside an alarmed voice is telling him to get the fuck out of the building; clearly one less trusting than the man before the party.
David makes some rather awkward small talk with the party (awkward on their end and awkward because of the hushed, yet alarmed, shouts from outside, but he seems rather at ease). He says he's part of scavenging crew, The Greed Elementals. He asks who exactly the party is and what they are doing out here; he knows most of the crews working out this way yet he has never seen the party.
The party explains they are new, and that they are called the Hellfire Syndicate. David totally seems impressed by the awesome name. He invites the party outside to talk with the rest of his group, but mentions that maybe he should walk out first. As there is no other way out of the building, the party agrees.
Outside are five more adventuring types, two men, two women, and a teenage male attempting to look the part of a wizard but failing due to his robes clearly being hand-me-downs and his lack of an awesome beard. One of the men, heavily armored with a greatclub (maybe their "leader"), steps forwards and tells the party that this is Greed Elemental territory and the the party should stay the fuck out.
David looks at the party apologetically and the others in the group just kind of roll their eyes at that pronouncement, yet they remain quiet. With their party member returned unhurt and apparently on friendly terms with the the PC party, they seem content to move on.
Braggor takes note that this seems to mostly be bluster and stands his ground for the Hellfire Syndicate: "Out here belongs to no one and there's plenty of it to go around, so chill out, broski." Paraphrased of course.
The leader doesn't press the point but tells the party to stay out of the Greed Elemental's way. He gestures his group to move on and they do. As they are leaving there is a hushed conversation and the leader gestures to a side road.
A sense motive check gives the party the impression they aren't trying to double around to ambush them so much as they are trying to make sure they aren't going to be followed. The party wonders at that; perhaps they are going some place deliberately, someplace worthwhile. It could be a lead on a good haul, but it could also mean violence.
The party decides that they will make enemies soon enough and there is no need to rush it, plus they would be outnumbered; they let the Greed Elementals go on their way.
No Resistance, No Loot
Onward the party goes, eyes peeled for more loot, but they are finding nothing worthwhile. It seems that though they are getting deeper and deeper into the city, they are following one of the paths of least resistance, one of the intact roads. Perhaps that is their problem.
They decide that if they want to find something worth finding they will need to stop doing things the comfortable way and get their hands dirty. That means it is time to leave the main road and explore the collapsed, sunken, and often impassible side roads and old main roads of the lower city.
They follow a rubble filled alleyway into several more such alleyways and eventually they find themselves on what have once been a broad boulevard, but now it has been ripped apart by the earth's upheavals.
The ground is split and some parts of the road have been forced upward and downward, creating cliffs and ledges of varying heights that one would need to constantly scale to make any sort of progress. It is now less a road and more a rugged canyon filled with ruins in various states of collapse.
Yet those ruins seem untouched. Perhaps there is something worth finding in a place like this.
To be continued...
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